Twitter is taking more steps to slow the spread of misinformation in times of crisis. The Company will strive to amplify reliable and authoritative information while trying to avoid raising falsehoods that could lead to serious harm. Under it new crisis misinformation policyTwitter explains a crisis as a situation that poses a “massive threat to life, physical safety, health or basic livelihood” that fits the United Nations definition of a humanitarian crisis.
For now, the policy will only apply to tweets related to international armed conflict. It can ultimately include natural disasters and public health emergencies.
The company plans to fact-check the information with the help of “a variety of publicly available, reliable sources.” These include humanitarian groups, open source investigators, journalists, and conflict monitoring organizations.
Twitter acknowledges that misinformation can spread quickly and that it will take action “as soon as we have evidence that a claim may be misleading.” Posts that violate the rules of this policy will not appear in the Home timeline or search or explore.
“Content moderation isn’t just about leaving or removing content, and we’ve expanded the range of actions we can take to ensure they’re commensurate with the severity of the potential harm.” Twitter’s head of integrity and safety Yoel Roth wrote in a blog post. “We’ve found that not amplifying or recommending certain content, adding context through labels and, in extreme cases, turning off engagement with Tweets, are effective ways to minimize harm, in while preserving keynote speeches and records of global events.
The company will also prioritize placing notices on highly visible rule-breaking tweets and those from well-known accounts, such as tweets run by state or government media. Users will need to click through the notification to read the tweet. Likes, retweets, and shares will also be disabled on these tweets.
“This tweet violated Twitter’s Rules for sharing false or misleading information that could harm those affected by the crisis,” the statement read. “However, in order to preserve this content for accountability purposes, Twitter has determined that this tweet will remain available.” Additionally, the announcement will include a link for more details on Twitter’s approach to crisis misinformation. The company said it will start adding the notice to misleading tweets related to the war in Ukraine.
Notices may appear on tweets that misrepresent the actual conditions of the conflict; false or inaccurate allegation of war crimes or mass atrocities; or misinformation about the use of weapons or force. Twitter may also apply the label to tweets that contain “misinformation about the international response, sanctions, defensive action or humanitarian action.”
There are some exceptions to the rule. They will not apply to personal anecdotes, first person accounts, verification or claim attempts, or “strong commentary”.
However, a lot of good details about Elon Musk is waiting to take over Twitter will remain in place and this policy is subject to change if and when the transaction ends. Musk said Twitter should only prevent illegal speech (this is also a complicated matter, as the rules vary by jurisdiction). It remains to be seen exactly how he will handle content moderation.
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